SOURCE: “Distinctive Aspects of Rank's Personality Theory¹,” in The Psychology and Psychotherapy of Otto Rank: An Historical and Comparative Introduction, Philosophical Library, 1953, pp. 64-86.

In the following essay, Karpf examines major differences in Rank's and Freud's terminologies used to discuss personality theory.

Like all theory which developed as an offshoot of psychoanalytic doctrine, Rank's theory of personality appears upon the established background of psychoanalytic thought and is presented chiefly by contrast with and frequently criticism of the Freudian position. As in the case of other such developments, notably the theories of Jung and Adler, the emergence of Rank's distinctive viewpoint was a gradual process, the cumulative product, in his case, of a laborious course of differentiation and crystallization of conception in respect to specific problems and issues, … In the light of later events, some of his views took on special importance and thereby gradually led to the formulation...